f the minor. Of this friend Essex is related
to have taken leave in his last moments with many kisses, exclaiming, "O
my Ned, my Ned, farewell! thou art the faithfulest and friendliest
gentleman that ever I knew." He proved the fidelity of his attachment by
attending the body of the earl to Wales, whither it was conveyed for
interment, and it was thence that he immediately afterwards addressed to
sir Henry Sidney a letter, of which the following is an extract.

"The state of the earl of Essex, being best known to myself, doth
require my travel for a time in his causes; but my burden cannot be
great when every man putteth to his helping hand. Her majesty hath
bestowed upon the young earl his marriage, and all his father's rules in
Wales, and promiseth the remission of his debt. The lords do generally
favor and further him; some for the trust reposed, some for love to the
father, other for affinity with the child, and some for other causes.
All these lords that wish well to the children, and, I suppose, all the
best sort of the English lords besides, do expect what will become of
the treaty between Mr. Philip and my lady Penelope.

"Truly, my lord, I must say to your lordship, as I have said to my lord
of Leicester and Mr. Philip, the breaking off of this match, if the
default be on your parts, will turn to more dishonor than can be
repaired with any other marriage in England. And I protest unto your
lordship, I do not think that there is at this day so strong a man in
England of friends as the little earl of Essex; nor any man more
lamented than his father since the death of king Edward[80]."

[Note 80: "Sidney Papers."]

Under such high auspices, and with such a general consent of men's minds
in his favor, did the celebrated, the rash, the lamented Essex commence
his brief and ill-starred course! The match between Philip Sidney and
lady Penelope Devereux was finally broken off, as Waterhouse seems to
have apprehended. She married lord Rich, and afterwards Charles Blount
earl of Devonshire, on whose account she had been divorced from her
first husband.

How little all the dark suspicions and sinister reports to which the
death of the earl of Essex had given occasion, were able to influence
the mind of Elizabeth against the man of her heart, may appear by the
tenor of an extraordinary letter written by her in June 1577 to the earl
and countess of Shrewsbury.

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"Our very goo